Posted a thread on another section but i think part of it may be more suited to this. I'm considering teaching, I have volunteered and build up some thoughts on the teaching as a career. Going to throw them out here and see what people think

(not meaning to wind anyone up but just being honest and after genuine thoughts)
-Being a teacher is hard work but it comes with lots of perks.
-Schools are generally positive working environments.
-It never gets boring.
-Training is incredibly difficult but it's very passable with the right attitude.
-Being a teacher is nowhere as "nice" as volunteering in a class room.
-With the right experience there is opportunity for career progression.
-There is loads of politics which is frustrating.
-This is just a observation, Teaching increasingly seems to be a "young person game", due to the physical and mental demands. (not a dig at any age group).
-Schools are desperate for male teachers.

Interesting discussion. Only a few inputs in reply to your thoughts. Being a teacher is hard work but it comes with a lot of parks. Frankly speaking if you are sincere then any profession means hard work. When it comes to perks then it depends what exactly you consider as "perks" .Money or the love and adulation shown by your students? Teaching can be very boring if you are not constantly updating your self, just like any other field too.Lastly many people argue that teachers have holidays but to me it does not serve your purpose. You have no control on when you want that holiday.Schools are desperate for GOOD teachers whether male or female.

(Original post by djj)
Posted a thread on another section but i think part of it may be more suited to this. I'm considering teaching, I have volunteered and build up some thoughts on the teaching as a career. Going to throw them out here and see what people think

(not meaning to wind anyone up but just being honest and after genuine thoughts)
-Being a teacher is hard work but it comes with lots of perks.

Most well paid jobs tend to come with perks but those perks vary. No-one will give you a company car and you won't get invitations to a private box at Premiership football as a teacher, but you will get much better holidays.

-Schools are generally positive working environments.

That depends on the school. A school with a low Ofsted rating may have the positivity of the condemned cell.

-It never gets boring.

The vast majority of our subject will be unchanged from one year to the next. What you teach may change because of syllabus changes. All children may be difference but teachers see so many children that they can easily be classified and dealing with the bully and the classroom joker every year may be very boring. Generally, teaching, like every career will be boring if you don't like doing it.

-Training is incredibly difficult but it's very passable with the right attitude.

"Incredibly" may be an exaggeration but then again I've never done it.

-Being a teacher is nowhere as "nice" as volunteering in a class room.

That is true with most careers compared with similar voluntary positions.

-With the right experience there is opportunity for career progression.

-There is loads of politics which is frustrating.

This can mean two things. If you are talking about office politics, that is probably diminishing with acadamisation. If you mean, national politics, then that isn't going away any time soon. If you find the involvement of the pubic in education,via their elected representatives "frustrating" then may be teaching is not for you.

-This is just a observation, Teaching increasingly seems to be a "young person game", due to the physical and mental demands. (not a dig at any age group).

The average age of retirement is 56. This is driven almost entirely by the terms of the Teachers Pension Scheme.

-Schools are desperate for male teachers.

Primary schools are very short of male teachers, much secondaries less so. But who is desparate? A female workforce may see a man as an interloper. A manager used to managing women may not welcome having to manage male staff.

I know a man who is about 65 now he's a retired teacher and loved teaching as a career. He didn't like the attitudes that many schools had to teaching and how they handled "misbehaving" children so he decided to work in a bike shop part time and tutor the rest of the time, so if you decided that you didn't like the political side you could always do private tuition.

The wife of somebody I know is a year 5 teacher who decided to stop being a teacher even though she loved teaching because there was no separation between your school and home, for example when she was talking to a child about a problem they were having at home she kept thinking about it even when she was away from school because she was really concerned.

Also, it's a lot of hard work (my aunty teachers year 1 children and she has so much marking and is always really tired). You have to assess yourself as a person to see whether you're the "right person" for teaching, e.g. are you patient and understanding or will you get annoyed or frustrated when people don't understand or you have a misbehaving child.

Also, my friend is an assistant teacher at a school she used to go to. She says that there is an obvious separation between teachers and assistant teachers and they don't really talk because often the assistant teachers aren't respected as much, so if you were bothered by that you should probably become a teacher rather than an assistant teacher.

However, Overall I think that teaching is a rewarding job so if you don't mind working really hard and you're quite a patient and kind person you'll be able to do it.

(Original post by djj)
Posted a thread on another section but i think part of it may be more suited to this. I'm considering teaching, I have volunteered and build up some thoughts on the teaching as a career. Going to throw them out here and see what people think

(not meaning to wind anyone up but just being honest and after genuine thoughts)
-Being a teacher is hard work but it comes with lots of perks.
-Schools are generally positive working environments.
-It never gets boring.
-Training is incredibly difficult but it's very passable with the right attitude.
-Being a teacher is nowhere as "nice" as volunteering in a class room.
-With the right experience there is opportunity for career progression.
-There is loads of politics which is frustrating.
-This is just a observation, Teaching increasingly seems to be a "young person game", due to the physical and mental demands. (not a dig at any age group).
-Schools are desperate for male teachers.

Lots of very good points being made here.

I taught for over 35 years, stopped in 2014. Yes it is hard work - be prepared to give up a lot of evenings and weekends marking and preparing. Also, managing large groups of students, all with their own individual needs and personalities, is pretty draining.

The holidays are excellent - but you really do need some time to unwind and refocus.

As for schools being positive environments - that varies but teachers can be very moany, both about the job and about students. I found this very difficult and dealt with it by associating with the more positive staff.

No, the job was never boring. You may teach the same material each year but students are always different so you'll always need to refine teaching methods and approaches plus have a load of new problems to solve.

Personally i think being a 'real' teacher is better than volunteering: you get to know students better and you feel part of the school.

Now I've finished I look back on my teaching life with great affection. I feel i helped thousands of students and that makes me feel very satisfied.

Interesting, thanks for the replies, good point about being a part of the school as a teacher.

Perks is a funny one, because as you say it means different things. I'll be careful because I don't want to go on too much about stuff i really don't know about it but an example would if it's a nice day you can take the class outside to do an activity. Don't doubt that teachers suffer loads red tape and instructions from management but the idea of "controlling" your own class is something I find appealing. Not power mad, I've just worked in some awfully grim places.

I did mean both office politics and national politics, but it is the same in every public sector job i suppose. It wouldn't put me off too much but it's something to consider.

I wouldn't be doing teaching until a couple of years due to various reasons but in short the reason I made the thread is because it looks a really attractive career for lots of reasons but worried it may be a career that looks and sounds nice but in reality is it?

Very few teachers are actually good at what they do - provoking interest and motivating youngsters to learn. Very few of the teachers do what they do because they genuinely want to teach. This is the stone cold truth and I am bound to be flamed because of this.

Most teachers I have had (especially those teaching liberal arts subjects) were talentless, lazy, unemployable hacks who could not find a job in the private sector and decided to find an easy job with a lot of benefits with a long vacation in the mix as a bonus. These people just hide behind the pristine image of being a teacher and "helping the children" when in reality they do it purely for selfish reasons.

For the most part, those who can't perform go into teaching with some exceptions. There are genuinely brilliant people who CHOSE to become teachers or those have also had private sector work experience but decided to teach instead. Now those teachers are worth their weight in gold. The others I could care less about - all those useless English teachers, Literature teachers, Philosophy teachers... What an absolute waste of space and time they all were. Not to mention my borderline insane German teacher who was pushing his leftist/socialist views down our throats.